Sony Reader PRS-505 - Specifications

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

How do you know about that?

They told us about it during the Conference Call on Monday, astra_lestat.

It's mentioned in the 18th paragraph, the one after the bit about being recognized as a USB mass storage device -- that probably distracted you, completely understandable.

[Bob Russell]

Originally Posted by NatCh

The good bit is that the 505 will charge from USB even when the battery is totally flat.

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

How do you know about that?

The Sony Rep told us that on the conference call about the 505. It was important because it was also the reason that the A/C adapter is not an optional accessory instead of included with the Reader. (That, plus the fact that the charging time is not very long, even through USB. I think it was a full charge in about 4hrs.)

[darkstar]

There are USB gizmos with 4 AA batteries that will charge a USB powered device. I wonder if this would work to charge the reader away from a AC plug.

[anotherchance]

Originally Posted by darkstar

There are USB gizmos with 4 AA batteries that will charge a USB powered device. I wonder if this would work to charge the reader away from a AC plug.

There are also AA batteries that will charge from a USB powered device. Not relevant here, but interesting to some I'm sure.

See.... http://www.usbcell.com/

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by NatCh

They've just made the AC adapter an optional accessory, is all.

The good bit is that the 505 will charge from USB even when the battery is totally flat.

That might explain how they kept the 505 price the same as the 500. All that copper is expensive and they save on boxing and transport too. In retrospect that charger is awfully big, almost as heavy as the reader.

[ZeBuddha]

Originally Posted by NickHiatt243

I still think sony missed the boat with this format. I bought the reader because of support for the pdf's. turns out that you can barley read it with out formatting it a half a dozen times. For $300 this thing should support every ebook format know to man and then some

The least Sony could of done was include some kind of decent converter for PDF's or include image support for rich text files(Not sure if that's even possible)
AS long as they support digital editions with out having to covert any files for the prs-500 I'll be happy

Don't hold me on this, but from what I've picked up reading through the forum while trying to pick what reader I was going to get, you'd probably have been better off with an Illiad... but then of course there's a price to that... in both dimensions and $$$...

Afaik, the PRS-500 and all other 6" readers are basically just text-only. They CAN display images, etc., but it's not their main purpose. Heck, I still use my PSP to read mangas, simply cos it can scroll and it can quickly zoom-in/out...

And as far as pdf are concerned... well... the entire format is designed from the ground up as a wysiwyg hardcopy/print format, on paper at 300dpi or more. And it's extremely inflexible when it comes to resizing/etc. Trying to reformat complex/image-rich pdfs for a 6" screen is like trying to print a flash website... it might be possible, but it's simply not designed for it.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by ZeBuddha

Don't hold me on this, but from what I've picked up reading through the forum while trying to pick what reader I was going to get, you'd probably have been better off with an Illiad... but then of course there's a price to that... in both dimensions and $$$...

Afaik, the PRS-500 and all other 6" readers are basically just text-only. They CAN display images, etc., but it's not their main purpose. Heck, I still use my PSP to read mangas, simply cos it can scroll and it can quickly zoom-in/out...

And as far as pdf are concerned... well... the entire format is designed from the ground up as a wysiwyg hardcopy/print format, on paper at 300dpi or more. And it's extremely inflexible when it comes to resizing/etc. Trying to reformat complex/image-rich pdfs for a 6" screen is like trying to print a flash website... it might be possible, but it's simply not designed for it.

This is why some of us wish Adobe Digital Editions were onboard a reader. All would come to life but I guess eink being what it is would hamper it quite a bit. For instance there is no refresh rate for that screen, it is refreshed only at each button command, so scrolling and zooming being fundamentally 'animation' are prevented from functioning properly. The next eink would have to be like the Iliad, but there goes battery duration. Can't have it all... sigh!

[NickHiatt243]

And as far as pdf are concerned... well... the entire format is designed from the ground up as a wysiwyg hardcopy/print format, on paper at 300dpi or more. And it's extremely inflexible when it comes to resizing/etc. Trying to reformat complex/image-rich pdfs for a 6" screen is like trying to print a flash website... it might be possible, but it's simply not designed for it.[/QUOTE]

All we really need is for someone to write an excellent pdf to lrf converter that is easy to use. Right now I use pdf2lrf which works great except for I lose my sizing abilities and Some of the pages end up getting split but at least its readable and I get to keep my images. Hell, I would be even happy to convert to a rich text file if sony would add image support.

Or with DE, adobe could make a converter that would take an epub and turn it into an lrf. I know it can be done. Some talented programmer could do this but it all comes down to DRM.

I know it will never happen but it would be great to have a converter that converts to every ebook format ie BBeB, LIT, Mobipocket, Rocketbook, PDF, RTF, epub to what ever format you need.

Or maybe books stores could provide way to choose what model of reader the customer has and then when they buy the ebook it could convert to work on thier reader before they download it.

I know, I know DRM DRM DRM

[NatCh]

A lot of folks have had good results with pdflrf (not to be confused with pdf2lrf ), it might work better for you.

[flamaest]

OMG, the 505 can be recognized as a USB mass storage device?

I like it!
F.

[NetVicious]

Virtual comparison:

http://www.sizeasy.com/page/size_com...Reader-PRS-505

I think the buttons are now better placed but it's a bit ugly compared with the PRS-500.

The new PDF of the PRS505 Specifications corrects the number of greys
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/mod....pl?mdl=PRS505

[chesterchen]

Was intending to get a 8GB SD card to use on the Sony Reader, any one knows if it might work?

[igorsk]

No, it won't. Get 2GB or less.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by chesterchen

Was intending to get a 8GB SD card to use on the Sony Reader, any one knows if it might work?

I think it does support an 8GB Memory Stick Pro though. But, those are about $100.

BOb

[JeffElkins]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I think it does support an 8GB Memory Stick Pro though. But, those are about $100.

BOb

Personally, I don't see the point. Without a folder-based navigation system even a 2GB card is overkill for me. On my Nokia N800 I have two 8GB cards, one of which easily holds my entire book collection, browsable with FBReader. On my Sony, I keep a few hundred books in in internal memory, organized in collections.

I really miss HDSD support and folders